Happy Birthday to my Hubby!!!

Exactly a week after my birthday and it's hubby's birthday! I whipped up some cod and shrimp with black eyed pea and corn salsa, and buttermilk herb biscuits. Then for dessert I decided to forego the cake and make these...

Salted caramel nutella stuffed double chocolate chip cookies! Oh....my....gosh! Run, do not walk, to this recipe! About one is all you can eat at a time but they are SOOOO good. I love salted caramel.

Great Days...

Well, the kids and I had a wonderful Halloween and my birthday yesterday was great. As you can tell, my kiddos were the Bat Kids!

I did have to do one final tweak to my daughter's costume. I picked up some cheap black masks at Michael's but when she tried it on, it just did not work. So I found one I liked online and used a silver Sharpie to draw off the parts I wanted to remove. Here's the before and after of what I did.

I thought it turned out pretty good!

My neighbor and I took our kids to Publix where they had a few games set up. Then we traveled over to Wendy's where it just so happened to be $.99 meals for the kids that night. They also had a clown doing face painting. One of my neighbor's kids had dressed as the Cheshire Cat so she asked if he could enhance it with some face painting. He did an amazing job!

How cute is that? After Wendy's we visited the home of a theater friend who was having a little get together. She and her hubby had made up lots of little "Harry Potter-like" party foods and even had a drink my son loved. They took rubber gloves and froze cranberry juice in them. Then they pored cranberry Sprite in the bowl over dry ice. It looked like hands were floating in the punch which my boy thought was so cool! Plus the 'smoke' from the dry ice added to the affect.

After all this they finally got to do some trick or treating and still came away with quite a haul.
Then yesterday was my birthday. It's also my neighbor's birthday so we usually end up giving each other gifts, but this time we decided to go on a birthday tour. We took my daughter and two of hers, then drove to Warm Springs. First stop?

We had a little home cooked southern food at The Bulloch House. Yum! Then we walked around the square and did some shopping. I came home with several scarves, some soaps, and a few Christmas gifts. When we got home, hubby had cooked a pot of minestrone soup and had flowers on the table. I got a gift card to a local spa so I'll have to figure out what kind of treatment I want to try. Plus I need to figure out what to get him cause his birthday is next Saturday and I have no ideas! Plus my daughter's birthday is Wednesday and I have no ideas for her either. Yuck!!!

Spa Party

I finally got around to throwing my daughter a party for her 11th birthday. She wanted a slumber party and invited several friends. Two got sick and couldn't come but it was still fun and crazy. We sort of did a spa theme and incorporated several of those types of activities.


The biggest hit was "Spin the Bottle." I bought enough nail polish from the dollar store that each girl could go home with one. I ended up with 5 different colors and a total of 8 bottles. I placed all of them in a bag, pulled one and spun it on the table. The girl it pointed to had to paint one fingernail that color. She would then pull the color for the next spin. I really thought the girls would bore with this but they got frustrated with me because I finally had to let them finish up the nails so we could watch the movie (The Princess Bride, of course!). They all ended up with very colorful fingernails.

We did oatmeal facials from a teaspoon each of olive oil and honey, mixed with cooked oatmeal; the exfoliate mask here. The girls thought this was hilarious. Hard to get a good picture when they're laughing!

I picked up a set of little paint pots from Hobby Lobby for $2 with a coupon and we made vaseline/kool aid lip balm.

I picked up a couple of Mad Libs from the book store, as well as a pack of Smencils. Smencils are fun if you've never heard of them. Pencils that smell. My favorites are cinnamon and black cherry. One of the Mad Libs was specifically about slumber parties so I figured that worked well.

Their little go home bags will consist of headbands I picked up at the grocery store to keep their hair back from the facials, 2 pots of lip balm, a bottle of fingernail polish, and a Smencil. I am not big on sending home a bag of junk so I kind of liked that it could all be used.

I had originally ordered a pack of materials from Candytiles shop on Etsy to have the girls create their own glass tile necklaces. I ordered them on Saturday the 3rd. However, I received an email on THURSDAY to say that they had only just been sent out that day. I'm not sure why it takes 5 days to send out a little pack of tiles. I was not happy because they will not arrive until this Tuesday. I don't foresee there being anything wrong with the package of goodies but I hate that they couldn't get them out in a timely manner. It may have something to do with when Paypal actually sent them their money but I find it strange that it would take 5 days. Very disappointed. Even with this setback, the party went over with a bang so all was well!

Just Making Whoopie...Pies, that is!

My birthday was Friday and Monday is my daughter's birthday. I know. What's crazier is that hubby's birthday is this coming Friday. That's just the way we roll. Now if I could have gotten my son's birthday a little closer I'd probably have gone insane... but luckily his is in February! Anyway, I want to be hard at work in my sewing room last night, but instead I was hard at work making whoopie pies to take to school for my daughter's birthday. I haven't even heard yet if I'm allowed to go as well or if she only wants the pies.
I made chocolate whoopie pies with salty peanut butter filling, courtesy of Bakerella who posted this recipe, and a big thank you to the authors of the Whoopie Pies cookbook where she got the recipe in the first place.
We also had David's brother and future sister-in-law over to watch the game so I had spaghetti sauce in the crock pot. Ever had one of those days where you wonder what blew up all over your kitchen? Yup, I definitely had one of those!
Then when dinner was over I noticed this...

Candle wax! I am not a happy camper! Does anyone have a miracle cure for getting candle wax out of fabric?

A Pinched Nerve,...Possibly

Yeah, I'm pretty sure I have a pinched nerve in my shoulder. Luckily it only hurts when I pull my arm back at odd angles but it always seems to hit at inopportune moments. I was trying on a jacket today while out shopping and I thought I was going to burst into tears when I tried to put that arm in the sleeve. I don't think Kohl's associates would have known what to do with me. I keep hoping that it will work its way out and I won't have to go to the doctor or anything, but I'm afraid that may be wishful thinking.

Well, back to planning a soon to be 11 year old daughter's Bday party for the 10th. So far, not good. I've never been this slow about getting things pulled together. Of course, my birthday is Friday so, how is it fair that no one's planning for me? (excuse me while I laugh hysterically at the thought that my children would even remember that it's my birthday!)

The Cake!

It's done! I finished Little Man's Ninjago cake last night. Needless to say, it is not perfect but he loves it which is all that matters. There are several versions of this cake online but I originally saw this one.

I used what I had, which was two 9 inch cake pans and a glass bowl with a 9 inch mouth, or opening. I made three cakes and stacked with a thin layer of buttercream frosting using this recipe from the Food Network which was pretty tasty. I then covered the outside with a layer of buttercream frosting; I didn't worry about it being too perfect since it was doing to be covered with fondant.

I used this marshmallow fondant recipe, which the children also though was tasty. I also liked that there were only 3 ingredients. I thought about using fondant from the store but the kind I wanted was $20 for a little tub, and even with a coupon I couldn't make myself buy it when I knew I could make some for less than $5. I went ahead and made a double batch and I'm glad I did because we used almost all of it.

Zane in progress

I colored a small amount yellow with gel coloring for Zane's face. I rolled this out and pressed it into the icing on the front. I used another small amount for the eyes. I didn't have black so I mixed colors until I was satisfied. It is difficult to add several colors because it takes so long to mix them that the dough becomes sticky again, so you add more powdered sugar. This is like adding white to colored paint and changes the color so you're doing more kneading which can end up being too dry if you take too long. ARGH! I will also say one should probably use gloves for that part because my hands are now red! I blew up the face on my computer until it was the size I wanted (I trace off the computer all the time!!), then made templates to create the eyes which hubby situated on the face for me. I covered the sides with white squares and the front bottom with a long narrow strip. Hubby helped me with the largest piece and draped it across the top of Zane's head. This was gathered to the back where I attached a fondant tie to look like it had been tied in the back.

I didn't get the 'drape' to the front like I wanted and I think it's a bit more rounded than it should be but the overall look is cute and I think it is recognizable, which is a large part of it. I think the 'too rounded' part could have been remedied by just adding another cake pan layer to give it more height.

Overall, I don't think I did too horribly bad on my first attempt with fondant and I would probably try it again.